Nutritional Therapies for Immune System,
Inflammatory, Digestive and Related Disorders
Inflammation and Hormone Imbalances and Deficiencies
Hormones are proteins that your endocrine (glandular) system uses to communicate with and control most of your bodies physiological processes. There are 5 main Hormonal systems in the body; Immune system (cytokines, chemo-kines, etc.); Reproductive system (Estrogen Progesterone, Testosterone,FSH, LH, etc); Thyroid (Thyroxine); Pancreatic (Insulin, Glucagon); and Adrenal system (cortisol, epinephrine, DHEA, others).
Each of these hormone systems is intricately tied every other system and are in constant "communication" with every other system. This is how the body integrates and coordinates its infinitely complex and inter-connected body systems so they work in "harmony" with each other. A stress event, shock or trauma to one of these body systems can have significant impacts on some or all of the other body systems as a result. The following image is intended to show this.
Don't try and decipher the technicalities of the image. Its intent to to simply show the possibly interactions and effects one system can have on the others.
Another key takeaway is that with how interconnected these systems are, you can see how it's almost impossible to address or help an imbalance or dysfunction in one system without a proper and "holistic" assessment of the other body systems. We can't fix one thing without trying to fix everything.
Lets consider the Immune and Inflammation component of this diagram. Autoimmunity (immune system attacks your own body tissues) can affect all of the hormone secreting glands shown above.
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It can affect the Pancreas and cause Type I diabetes (juvenile diabetes) and new research is suggesting it can affect Insulin receptors and contribute to Type II diabetes.
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It can affect the Thyroid gland (Hashimoto's and Graves Disease)
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It can affect the Ovaries (PCOS) and Uterus (Endometriosis)
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It can affect the Adrenal glands (Addisons and Cushings disease
So inflammation can directly target and impact normal functioning and secretions from these glands.
Chronic inflammation can also significant secondary impacts of glandular function. Cortisol from your adrenal glands, Estrogen (ovaries) and Testosterone (Testes) all play significant roles in fighting inflammation in the body. If part of your body is "on fire" (chronic inflammation) constantly, your bodies anti-inflammatory systems can become stressed and 'burned out", leading to deficiencies or dysfunctions in those systems.
Cortisol is also a "stress" hormone and a key part of your Fight or Flight survival system. If all of your Cortisol is going to fight inflammation, there can be less to do all of its other jobs including controlling responses to stress. This can lead to mood and anxiety issues.
The potential impacts (direct or indirect) that inflammation can have on the endocrine system seem endless and perhaps a little overwhelming to begin to understand and assess within ourselves. The good news is that inflammation always has a trigger, it's a mechanically driven system. If we can identify and remove these triggers (dietary, infectious, etc) then quite often the downstream impacts on the rest of the endocrine system can begin to balance itself again.
This is not to say that Inflammation is the ONLY stress on these systems, there are many others (environmental, social, psychological, etc etc.) It's just in many cases these other stresses aren't under our control and we can't alter them.
Inflammation is a major contributing stress on these systems for many patients. It's also a stress that we CAN manipulate and remove by identifying the trigger mechanism for it. Diet plays a huge role in these regard.